Doughnut production involves mixing and extruding a dough-based product. The extruded dough-based product is cut and dropped onto a belt or tray and transported through a proofer to a frying apparatus for cooking. After cooking, the dough-based product may be glazed, filled, and/or decorated to make the final doughnut.
A conventional extruding and cutting apparatus is made of stainless steel plate, industrial construction, and washdown (NEMA IV is a requirement). Such an extruding and cutting apparatus comprises a container for the dough, a lid with hold-down screws, and an extruding mechanism that dispenses the dough-based products at the base of the container. As used herein, the term “extruding mechanism” includes what is known in the industry as “cutters,” “knives,” or any other extruding device that is used to extrude and cut the dough-based product from the container.
A conventional extruding and cutting apparatus is constructed somewhat like a pressure cooker, and the container is airtight when the screws are tightened and the lid is secured. Once secured, the container is pressurized to a pre-selected starting air pressure that is based on the type of dough-based product to be dispensed. Air pressure is critical to the maintenance of proper dispensed weight of the selected dough-based product. Next, the extrusion process is initiated and air pressure forces the dough through the cutters as they are opened and closed by the air cylinder mechanism.
It is important that dough-based products formed by the extruder have a constant weight (i.e., a weight within an acceptable range). Operating conditions for subsequent processing steps are set based on dough-based products having a particular weight. When dough-based products are formed by the extruder and have weights outside of a target range, then the final product (i.e., after proofing and frying) may have undesirable properties. For example, the dough-based products may be outside product specifications, crunchy, too oily, underfried or may have a burnt flavor. Dough-based products with these properties may be unsatisfactory to customers.
In conventional systems, an operator constantly oversees the production run and manually weighs the dispensed dough-based products (i.e., individual cuttings of the dough-based product). Based on the actual dispensed weight, the operator adjusts air pressure to maintain the pre-selected weight of the dough-based products. If a dough-based product is not within the pre-selected dough-based product weight range, then the operator manually, adjusts the air pressure until the pre-selected dough-based product weight range is achieved.
For example, in a conventional system designed to produce two hundred seventy (270) dozen doughnuts per hour, an operator removes one half dozen doughnuts per minute (i.e., one tray or flight of doughnuts—six doughnuts being the number of doughnuts formed with each extrusion) and weighs them. The operator then adjusts the pressure if the weight of these six doughnuts are outside of a target weight range. With this system, thirty dozen doughnuts are discarded per hour in order to insure that doughnuts having a proper weight are formed by the extruder. In addition, the operator may also spend time straightening the formed dough-based products on the trays before they are proofed.
Further, in conventional processes, when the dough supply runs low, one or more of the cutters dispense air. This is referred to as a “blow out.” Thereafter, the operator immediately stops the extrusion process.
Conventional industry practice is a time-consuming, subjective, and imprecise process that demands high labor and product resources. Thus, a need exists for methods and systems to automatically extrude and cut dough-based products while also automatically maintaining a pre-selected target weight. A need also exists for methods and systems that are able to communicate with other doughnut production devices, such as a proofer or a fryer, and automatically control these devices with input/output signals to streamline the entire doughnut production process. There is a further need for state-of-the-art methods and systems that are user-friendly and that are able to collect, accumulate, disseminate, and manage doughnut production data in a fast, reliable, and efficient manner.